Bow woods Bow building for poor people and apartment dwellers Brought to you by: SAM HARPER Home | Update Archives | Other bow building sites | Thanks to all who helped me | Gallery | Youtube Channel Bow woods There are bow woods I've tried and bow woods I haven't tried. This is a list of bow woods (and grass in the case of bamboo) I've tried or heard a lot about. I'm only considering limb wood material, not handle wood material. Don't limit yourself, though. People are trying new things all the time. Red oak The great thing about red oak is that it's easy to find and it's cheap. It's ideal for somebody who is just starting out. Just about every Home Depot or Lowes I've been to has it. They sell it in the perfect size, too. It comes in a 72" long board they call a 1x2, which is actually 3/4 x 1-1/2. Red oak is very porous, and most of the pores are in the early growth rings, so it's important to find a piece with thick late growth rings or else it will seem brittle. Those boards will feel heavier.

If you find a board with very straight grain, you don't necessarily need to back it, but it's a good idea to back any board bow. Bamboo The wonderful thing about bamboo is that you're guaranteed to have straight grain. Bamboo bows rarely fail if done right. Some people call bamboo nature's fiberglass. It's great bow material, and it's cheap. Bamboo comes in different forms�raw bamboo and bamboo flooring boards. If you get the flooring boards, be sure to get vertical grain. The horizontal grain will come apart. Bamboo flooring makes a great bow if backed with raw bamboo. All bamboo bows are my personal favourite. They're quieter than any other bow I've made, and there's just something about the way they feel when you draw them and shoot them that's hard to describe. There's a smoothness about them. The only bad thing I have to say about bamboo bows is that they take a lot of set. It's a good idea to put a lot of reflex in the bow at glue-up if you want to have any left after tillering. Vertical grain flooring boards can also be cut into laminations.

People sometimes refer to it as "action boo." It's ideal in the core of a fiberglass bow, because it's light and strong. Raw bamboo is just a slice of a solid piece of bamboo with the nodes still intact. It makes a great backing to almost any kind of bow. Bamboo is very strong in tinsel strength, so it needs to be very thin to avoid overpowering the belly wood. Some woods that are good with raw bamboo backing include osage, yew, ipe, and bamboo, because they can withstand the compression forces. Hickory Hickory is popular for backing bows. Like bamboo, it's very strong in tinsel strength, so it needs to be thin. It's not quite as strong in compression strength. It makes a good self bow, too. I haven't made a self bow out of it, but from what I've read, it's almost impossible to break. Some people question its durability, though. Apparently, it takes a lot of set over time and becomes sluggish. I think this may be due to the fact that hickory sucks up a lot of moisture from the atmosphere. It needs to be a tad dryer than other woods to get the best performance out of it.

The only problem with using it to make a self bow is that it's almost impossible to get the bark off of it. I've heard several different methods, the most popular being to put it in a hot shower for 20 or 30 minutes before trying to get the bark off with a chisel. Osage Some people consider osage (bois d'ark) to be a weed, but to those of us who make bows, it's gold. I love everything about osage except for the fact that it's hard to find a straight piece of it without knots. It smells good, it looks good, and it's the ideal bow wood. It lasts forever without taking a set, and it's very strong in compression strength. I can't say enough about osage. I just love it. If only it were easier to come by! Ipe It's pronounced EE-pay. It's the same thing as Brazilian walnut. It's very strong, so you can make thinner and lighter limbs, resulting in a faster bow. It goes well with a bamboo backing. Ipe is used in decks, because it's so resistant to decay. That makes it a good bow wood, too.

Some people have allergic reactions to it, so beware. Ash I hate ash. I don't know why anybody bothers with it. It breaks too easily. Cedar (or Juniper) There are different kinds of cedar. That cedar you find at Lowes and Home Depot is pitiful for making bows. It's way too brittle. Juniper (or aromatic cedar) is a lot better, but it's brittle as well. It's great under clear fiberglass, though, because some pieces of it are just beautiful. It smells good, too. Poplar It's tempting to try poplar since it's so cheap and available, but it's too soft to make a decent bow out of. Black Locust Okay, I haven't actually tried this one, but I've heard good things about it. Yew I haven't tried this one either. Yew is supposed to be ideal for making longbows, because it's so strong in compression that it's one of the few woods that can withstand the D-shaped cross section of an English longbow. The problem with it is that it's too expensive. Black walnut I've only used walnut in a fiberglass bow. I think it's beautiful.

I didn't like the way it smelled when I first started using it, but the smell grew on me. I've heard it works well in non-fiberglass bows, but I haven't tried it. Bow building for poor people and apartment dwellers The Classic Longbow The Classic Longbow Its History Is Riddled With Noble Colors And Its Present Punch Is Just As Deadly By Sam Fadala Before video games, 24-hour television and boom boxes, many youngsters would spend their time reinventing the longbow. Filled with romantic notions of hunting the hard way, each boy, and a few girls, too, cut a supple limb from a tree or bush, tying the ends together with a cord. My first bow began as a section of my grandfather’s favorite oleander bush. We bought arrows for just a dime to a quarter each, or with personal enterprise, made our own, often with reeds cut to length, notched on one end for a nock, tipped with nothing at all, or perhaps a piece of broken glass to simulate a broadhead. Now and again, glass-tipped arrows were successful. Hunting hard, I finally got a jackrabbit with my lowly stick and string, and was very proud of it.

History of the Longbow Longbows fell into disuse when firearms took over, but they regained favor in the late 1800s. The great grandfathers of longbow rebirth were Will and Maurice Thompson. They took up archery in earnest after the American Civil War, but were introduced to the sport much earlier. Maurice said in Scribner’s Monthly magazine, July 1877, “I was yet in my teens when I was taught the use of the longbow by Thomas Williams, a sort of hermit whose cabin stood in the midst of a vast pine forest that bordered father’s plantation in the beautiful Cherokee country of North Georgia.” Maurice Thompson was an excellent writer. His articles and book, The Witchery of Archery, first printed in 1878, brought many newcomers to the bow. (Maurice’s book is in reprint today and worth reading.) Bows were generally “six feet from tip to tip…unstrung, and made of lemon-wood or yew.” One of Maurice’s favorites had nocks (tips) of horn. “It was made by Philip Highfield, of London,” explained Maurice in the Scribner’s articles.

Highfield arrows sold for $9.00 a dozen in the late 19th century. They were built of hickory, 28-inches long, and footed (fitted with extra hardwood spliced up front). The Thompson bow was not unlike Robin Hood’s, whether you believe in the green-clad figure of Sherwood Forest or not, for bows of Robin’s era were longbows made of a single material. The same longbow came into the 20th century championed by Pope & Young. Pope had a chance to study English longbows at a museum. He compared them with American Native bows and announced the English model superior. But Dr. Pope also knew about the Turkish composite bow, crediting it with abilities “far beyond the possibilities of the yew longbow.” The 20th century dawned bright and clear, following the first of two world wars, as well as a multitude of startling inventions, from electric light bulbs and radio to workable automobiles, and even airplanes. The classic longbow was there to greet the new century, still made of a single material, with design very much like bows of Merry Old England.

Sam Fadala with a gobbler and a classic style longbow built by John Schulz, protŽgŽ of Howard Hill. Don’t let the reverse, or forward set, handle fool. Hill, and other longbowmen, considered this grip perfectly acceptable. Pope and Young went forth to slay grizzly bears and African lions with their longbows. Pope was already interested in archery when the “last wild Indian,” as the wise and wonderful Ishi was first called, came forth from the California Mountains. Pope taught Ishi about steam locomotives and flying machines. Ishi tutored Dr. Pope in bowhunting. Pope and Young continued what Will and Maurice started, an interest in archery and bowhunting in modern America. Pope’s first bows may well have been those he fashioned after staves taken from the Mary Rose, a vessel that sank off the coast of Albion in 1535, and was raised again in 1841. Two bow staves were salvaged, both six-feet and 43?4-inches long. Pope copied these original English bows.

His yew bows were “an exact duplicate” based on recorded measurements of the originals. They drew about 65 pounds and shot 28-inch arrows about 225 yards maximum, roughly half as far as Ingo Simon shot a Turkish bow in France in 1913. Pope and Young made their own bows, as well as arrows and accessories. Pope felt “every field archer should make his own tackle: so he would understand its repair.” When the great Howard Hill came to archery, he was greeted once again by the same English style selfbow. Howard Hill began his fantastic career at the age of four, with no more than stick and string. Howard handmade many bows in the 1920s and by 1933, he’d taken a bull bison from horseback at full gallop with one of his creations. Howard’s first models were selfbows, and when his book, Hunting the Hard Way, appeared in 1953, he recommended that newcomers build their first bow of a single material. Hill’s best longbows were composites, however, constructed of wood and fiberglass laminations.

They were still cut from the classic design, a style that not only hangs on today, but also continues to do well for itself. Many companies and individual bowyers build the old-style longbow, including Jerry Hill Longbow Company of Wilsonville, Alabama, and Howard Hill Archery of Hamilton, Montana. Longbows can be shot “straight up,” and some shooters, such as Bill Fadala, do quite well using that form. Today, many bowyers known for their modern-style longbows also offer a classic model for those who want one. For example, Herb Meland of Pronghorn Custom Bows, recognized for his high-performance recurves and excellent Three Piece Takedown Pronghorn longbow makes a Night Hawk with slight reflex/deflex design, but basically the classic longbow. Moreover, selfbows are back on the market with fine workmanship. Legendary Longbows of New Berlin, Wisconsin, sells bows that range from the Neolithic era to the present in style, including longbows. D.M. Kissinger of Berwick, Pennsylvania, handcrafts English-style longbows from various woods, including yew.

Quality North West Bow Woods offers many different types of materials for those who want to try their hand at making their own selfbow. The standard English, or if you will, classic style, longbow stays alive partly because of tradition. After all, Will and Maurice Thompson, Pope and Young, Howard Hill and quite a number of other greats shot longbows. “Yes, but maybe that’s all they had to shoot,” you say, and the answer is “no”; it wasn’t all they had available to them to shoot. Even Will and Maurice had various bow desig ns available to them. They chose the longbow because it made sense to them. It was clean and simple, more like a canoe than a motorboat, and it shot well with a great deal of reliability. Dr. Pope did have a leaning toward the Anglo-Saxon culture: nonetheless, he acknowledged that other bow designs were better performers than the longbow, but he stayed with the longbow anyway. The “classic” longbow continues to be built and shot on the range and in the hunting field because of nostalgia, and because some hunters feel the style represents the kind of challenge they wish to take on as a bowhunter.

I do believe that standard longbow shooters can get so good your eyes will bug out when you see them shoot. So I’m not so sure I entirely buy the handicap reason for shooting a classic longbow. Good longbowmen don’t seem to be handicapped. If longbows were truly unmanageable, nostalgia alone could never keep them alive on the threshold of the 21st century. Dale Storey leans into the shot with his Jerry Hill longbow. Dale anchors at the corner of his mouth. He is a fluid longbow shooter who can whip an arrow out of his back quiver and have it launched on target in seconds. Note Dale’s grip on the bow. Not a choke hold, but not loose, either. Traditional Technique While today’s traditional bowhunter may not want to shoot an English-type longbow exclusively, having one in the bow rack is never a bad idea. Part of the fun is in learning how to get the most from that bow. First, there’s shooting style. It’s entirely possible to shoot old-style bow “straight up.” Howard didn’t do it that way, but others did and still do. One of my sons can shoot a longbow straight up.

His arrows have no problem with the archer’s paradox (warping around the riser of the bow, then back on track). Shafts fly straight and true, although my son shoots the bow with limbs vertical to the earth. The usual stance for longbow mastery is relaxed, bent into it, knees unhinged, bow canted off to make a V-shaped shelf that launches an arrow cleanly toward the target. Instead of standing tall, the bowman crouches a little. Rather than the bow arm out straight, the arm is cocked a little at the elbow. Anchor point is normally at or near the corner of the mouth, which is not the way Will and Maurice did it, or for that matter Pope or Young, but it was Howard Hill’s style. Hill picked a tooth to touch with a finger each time to ensure a constant anchor point. Others used an ear, which would badly overdraw my bows. Multiple anchor points are also possible. I switch to a higher anchor point for extra-close shots, which works for me when a cottontail is five yards away, or even closer. Arrows are shot off the shelf.

A stick-on rug or leather arrow rest is coupled with a strike plate, which may also be of various materials. Some longbow shelves are narrow, in which case one stick-on rug or piece of leather folds into the corner and serves as combined rest and strike plate. Keep it simple. That’s the longbow rule, although anyone who wants to mount an arrow rest on a longbow is free to do so. It works. The longbow shooter generally goes with glove or tab. A glove is more visually appealing I suppose, but in recent years I’ve switched to a tab. Shooting is instinctive. If that term bothers you, let’s just say the archer shoots his longbow without sights. Exactly how he directs his arrow to the target is open to question. There are many theories. Sights have been mounted on longbows successfully, but I feel that a sight on a longbow takes away from the natural flow of things. How nice it is to direct an arrow wherever your eye is looking, without thinking about it. In fact, when I think about it, I tend to miss. Stay on autopilot–that’s the way to handle a longbow. Let your brain do the work at the unconscious level.

Of course, my friends and I tried sights. It was part of the evolution we had to go through while shooting a bow. We used a straight pin with a tiny plastic ball on the end, the pin taped to the riser of the bow. The sight was zeroed for 30 yards, as I recall. It was also off at every other range. I got rid of mine as fast as I could, going back to burning a hole in the target with my eyes, drawing, anchoring and releasing cleanly, without dropping the bow arm in the process. Dale Storey demonstrates good hand placement on this Jerry Hill longbow. The fingers of the glove hand are curled just enough around the string to hold it; the bow hand takes a full grip, but without choking the handle. Pros And Cons As with everything else on the planet, longbows have their good and bad points. First the good point. The man who masters a longbow can shoot from just about any position, even lying on his stomach. The bow can be canted a little bit, or severely; the arrow still flies to the mark. Longbows can be very quiet.

I use spider legs to get the hum out of the bowstring, cutting each rubber section in half so there are four shorter silencers rather than two longer ones. All four are run through the center of the bowstring, stretched out, then tied into place with nylon serving thread, plus a drop of Super Glue to secure the knot. I’ve also run a longbow without silencers, quite successfully. In short, longbows are quiet, efficient bows. And one more thing–they are light. You aren’t carrying a chunk of telephone pole into the woods when you pack a longbow. Now the negative side: The traditional longbow, as mentioned earlier, demands getting used to; at least for most of us. I’m sure there are archers who pick one up and feel that they were born shooting it, but most bowmen have to gain a feel for the straightened bow and how it casts an arrow. Also, there may be hand shock. If you think hand shock causes inaccuracy, watch a great archer shoot an old-time longbow. Don’t be surprised if he can whack coins out of the air with it. Finally, newer longbow designs definitely shoot a faster arrow than Robin Hood’s bow of lore.

Just don’t tell anybody that the big buck you got was harvested with an arrow that had maxed-out at only 170 feet per second and everything will be fine. One look at the riser of this longbow tells you that the bow is not of the old school. It is Herb Meland’s Three Piece Takedown Pronghorn, this one belonging to the author. It has a maple riser impregnated with an epoxy substance under high pressure for added strength, and little additional ballast in the hand. Note leather strike plate and rug rest. Arrow Selection Now we come to arrows. Longbows shoot anything spined to suit the draw weight of the bow. Those great aluminum shafts from Easton shoot extremely well in longbows. So do wood arrows of different types. An excellent wood shaft I tried recently is slow-growth pine fr om Blue Mountain Arrow Shafts, Ltd. of Vanderhood, British Columbia. These shafts proved tough and resilient. Of course, tapered cedars from Wapiti Archery in Lakewood, Colorado, are always good, too. A big surprise came my way when I tried a recent graphite arrow. Fast and true. That’s how graphite arrows release from my longbows.

It if offends an archer’s sense of history to shoot carbon or aluminum arrows from a bow designed before knights were bold, then wooden shafts are the way to go. That is a glance at the classic longbow, different from modern longbow designs by quite a margin, but historical, interesting, and in the hands of an archer willing to practice, still a formidable hunting instrument. List of Potenial Bow Wood Species - With Comments in Technical Bowmaking Information Forum BUTTERNUT .38. COTTONWOOD: black .45; eastern .40. CEDARS: western red, white .32, Port Orford .43, Alaska .44. Low SG cedars are very brittle, and about the worst possible bowwood candidates. More like balsa than bowwood. There is always the rare piece of oldgrowth heartwood or compression wood that could do a bit better. When choosing any conifer choose thin-ringed wood if possible. CHESTNUT, American, .43. FIRS: balsam .36, white .37, noble .38, Pacific silver .38, California red .39, Norway .43.

HEMLOCK .42. MAHOGANY Most mahoganies and woods sold as mahogany are light and brittle. Some can reach .50 and above. MANGO About .45. PINES: eastern white .35; sugar .36; western white .38; ponderosa, lodgepole .40; red, Scots .45. POPLARS Several species, all just above or below .37. Brittle. Since a same-size staves of poplar contains about half the wood as, say, whiteoak it will do half the work of whiteoak. Everything else being equal poplar, or similar-SG wood, can safely be made to half the drawweight, or to twice the width of whiteoak. REDWOOD .40. SPRUCES: black, eastern, red, Sitka, white .40; Norway .42. WILLOW .39. BORDERLINE BOWWOODS All of the following can become durable fulldraw midweight bows using less severe versions of the Non-Bowwood remedies, above. ASH, black .49. Black is the lightest and weakest ash.

Tested samples and bows took excessive set per mass. BOXELDER .46. ELEDEBERRY To .50. There are several species. Dr. Bert Grayson's elderberry in Oregon appears denser and more elastic than that tested here in the Bay Area, and made a decent bow. Elderberry is superior wood for drill and base when making handrill fires. EUCALYPTUS Somewhat brittle in tension, chrysals easily, tends to be twisted, leaving clues to this in its bark. Its less twisted when grown undercover and away from wind. This wood takes little set before it blows, so will have good cast as long as it holds together. FIR, Douglas .49. Look for heartwood boards or trees with a high percentage of dark wood in the rings. 50% if you can. Such usually comes from fine-ringed, old-growth wood, more frequently seen in old doors and beams at salvage yards. Such dense fir can perform like mid-weight ash. HAWTHORN, English, Crataegus laevigata. ??????????????????// LARCH, eastern tamarak .52. Several good bows reported; western .51.

MAGNOLIA, southern .50. Diffuse-porous. PINES: loblolly, pitch, shortleaf .51, southern yellow .55, longleaf, slash .56. SASSAFRAS is placed in this category with some reluctance. At .46, it tends to break on its back before taken cast-robbing set. Sassafras will become a fast, smooth bow if handled carefully. An ELB design makes the handle area do work, letting about 20% more wood store energy. At 1.5" wide and 76 or so long, with narrow outer limbs, it will be a durable, sweet-shooting bow. As with other tension-weak woods, a crowned English belly will offer some protection by allowing general and local set to take place, reducing back strain. If backed with light rawhide length or width can be reduced to that of a bow of typical .55 or slightly higher SG wood. All the sassafras I've seen has been thin-ringed, with a high percentage of early growth. This wood was thought well of in earlier times. Possibly better growing conditions allowed thicker-ringed, denser, stronger, more elastic wood.

Possibly such wood grows today, in which case it would be rated here as a true bowwood. If given a choice select staves with thicker growth rings and low-percentage early wood. Sassafras is especially easy to work. SILVERBELL .48. SWEETBAY Laurel Magnolia .48. SYCAMORE .49. Diffuse-porous. TOYON, California holly. This wood is fairly brittle, but good bows have been nursed from it. For Californians, bay is a better native wood. TREE-OF-HEAVIN .52. TUPELO .50. Diffuse-porous. TRUE BOWWOODS Assuming sound wood, proper design and good tillering, only the lowest SG species here might occasionally need light backing. APPLE .65. ASH: green .56; Oregon .56; blue .58; white .59; European .61. White is our heaviest ash. Almost all sapwood. Oregon looks and behaves almost identically to White. BAY California laurel .56. A Westcoast native. BAMBOO takes more set per mass than any hardwood.

It can be tempered with heat and gain in compression strength and elasticity. Fly rod makers do this, and bowmakers in the past also. Howard Hill for one. Untempered bamboo works well as belly wood if Perry reflexed. If making a bamboo selfbow its helpful to let the outer surface serve as belly, to prevent extreme set. The back is then composed of weaker inner fibers, but is more than strong enough. Yes, tiller on the back.. BEECH, American .64. Diffuse-porous. Usually too twisted and gnarly. BIRCHES: paper .55; silver, white .59; yellow .62; sweet .65. All birches are diffuse-porous. Somewhat brittle in tension. As with many other similar-density woods, a light rawhide backing makes birch as durable as heavier woods. BUTTONWOOD Button Mangrove .85. Found in tidal lagoons of Florida. CALIFORNIA NUTMEG is a less-dense cousin of yew. Its behaves like extra low-density yew. As with yew the sapwood is useless in compression. Working this wood releases a pleasant spicy aroma. CHERRY, black .50.

Diffuse-porous. Grows tall and straight. A bright wood, taking little set, and probably having less hysterisis/returning less sluggishly than any other common bowwood. Cherry is so light and brash its almost too touchy for bow wood, but once made, a cherry bow is unusually sweet and fast shooting. If the stave tree was smaller than about 5 in diameter or bow limbs wider than 2 its best to decrown. A thin, properly applied rawhide backing makes cherry as safe as any unbacked wood. On the other hand, Paul Rodgers, a nearby bowmaking friend, made a lumberyard board bow, about 64 by about 1 , about 55lb at 28. Its still shooting after several years of use, still surprisingly straight-limbed and fast. This bow represents the good extreme. Sapwood takes more set in compression than heartwood. DOGWOOD, flowering .73. EASTERN REDCEDAR .47. An exceptional bowwood if handled appropriately. Its a juniper, not a cedar, having berries instead of cones. Purple-red heartwood. Redcedar is quite elastic per mass. Limbs are thicker or wider per bend resistance.

Somewhat weak in tension. Again, a thin rawhide backing makes it as tension safe as any wood. As with juniper and yew its well matched to sinew, the backing riding higher above the neutral plane for greater leverage, the wider ribbon of sinew holding the bow in greater reflex. An all sapwood bow is possible, but sapwood takes considerably more set than heartwood. The boundary between sapwood and heartwood can suddenly plunge several growth rings from one area or spot to another, possibly more so than any other wood. Knot-free lumber staves are almost impossible to find, more so than any other wood. Knot free wood is best found growing in dense shelter or with one side hard against another tree. ELMS: English .49; American .50; slippery .53; wych .60; rock .63; Winged .66;; paper; white; Texas; flowering. Wych elm grows in England, where it was thought of as best or the otherwoods. Elms are especially strong in tension compared to compression. Therefor, as with the hickories, elms hold up in overstrained designs.

Three unidentified elm logs from Texas yielded limbs denser than other elm, more massive per drawweight, and taking more set. Its creamy wood polished as smooth as ivory. If these three logs were typical of the subspecies this is one of the rare woods which is less efficient by its nature. HACKBERRY .53. Similar in looks, structure and design to elm. GONCOLO ALVES About .80. Tropical. Dark red brown. An especially pretty bowwood. HICKORIES: shellbark .69; mocknut, shagbark .72; pignut .75. Due to their extreme strength in tension the hickories are about the hardest bows to break and, unless at least moderately violated, never need backing. Hickory is used for backing other bows. HOLLY: American .56; English .68. HORNBEAM, American .70. HOPHORNBEAM Eastern .70, can be treated as if a somewhat heavier maple. IPE 1.08, heavier than water. Tropical. JUNIPERS All junipers make great bows.

As is true of wood in general, the denser the juniper the shorter or narrower a bow can be per given weight and draw. Juniper, of all the bowwoods, is possibly the best match for sinew--as per redcedar, it is thicker, wider, and less stiff per mass than other woods. The hardest part of making a juniper bow is finding a long-enough straight stave. Two short staves can be spliced together at the grip. Ishis people used mountain juniper branches before the ax arrived. Saplings and branches two-inches in diameter or less work fine, especially if sinew backed. Inner bark can sometimes be confused with surface sapwood, leading to broken backs. KENTUCKY COFFEETREE .60. KOA .60. Hawaii. LEMONWOOD Degame .67. One of the icon woods of archery. At one level its disappointing to discover its just another wood, no better or worse. About the weight of pecan, not as strong in tension, taking a touch less set per width. Heartwood is stronger than sapwood. Based on personal bend tests, if back fibers are much violated it will break like any other wood.

LIGNUM VITAE Ironwood. Heartwood is about 1.14, heavier than water. Ive made one bow from its sapwood, density estimated at .85. A bend test yielded of set when bent 3 to 38lb. Osage yields about 3.5 at 34lb. A slight thickness adjustment would have them testing the same. An osage-design bow took near zero set. A heartwood bow might best be 20% narrower than Osage. LOCUST, black .69. Stronger in tension than compression. A flat-back design is fine, but a crowned-back, wide-belly design is ideal, as from a smaller diameter limb or trunk. This wood is more likely to fret and chrysal, but here there is variation between trees. Nature loves bowmakers. She knows its hard to tiller a bow for best safety and speed, so she gave us the locust tree as teacher. If a locust bow develops clusters of frets in one or a few small areas this is locusts way of telling us we havent tillered the bow well. The fretted areas were put under greater strain, the unfretted areas loafing .

Someone may think theyve tillered a bow perfectly, but in the case of locust, the bow will actually tell you if you have or not. A well tillered bow will either have no frets, or else small frets spread along almost the entire length of the limb. If a locust bow is tillered perfectly and still develops frets, this is locusts way of saying we havent designed the bow properly for its weight, length and draw. The locust stave is a classroom. LOCUST, honey .66 A little less dense than black locust.. One of the prettier woods. Its sapwood is about twice as thick as that of black locust. Thorns grown on both trunk and branches MADRONE About .60. Somewhat brittle in tension. Rawhide would help here. Some have reported shorter madrone bows breaking even when lightly sinewed. MAPLES: bigleaf, silver .47; red .54; black .57; rock/sugar .63; vine, about .60. A vinemaple bow is thicker than most. John Strunk discovered and announced the good qualities of this wood.

He points out that when felling staves its important to indicate which side more faced the sky, which side the ground. Important because most vinemaple leans as it grows. Even more so than with other branch staves, if a vinemaple bows back is made of side wood it will twist during tillering. This is an important consideration when ordering staves. As with other strong-in-tension woods, there can be an advantage to a crowned back in medium to narrow designs. The crowned back has less mass, the flat-belly takes less set, so outshoots flat-back versions. The lighter maples are somewhat brittle in tension. All maples are diffuse-porous. Rock and sugar maple are the same wood. MESQUITE, honey .81. MOUNTAIN MAHOGANY About .80. Very heavy, hard, tough, wood. Doc Safford of S. California reports good results with this wood. MOUNTAIN LAUREL .68. MULBERRY, red .66, a distant cousin of Osage. A mulberry bow should be about 15% wider than osage, all else being equal.

As with locust and osage, a ring or two of sapwood can be left on the back if the wood was felled and dried before sapwood decay began. OAKS: California black .57; southern red .59; northern red, sessil, pin, bur .63; scarlet .67; white .68; Whiteoak is about as close to unbreakable as wood can be. In my bend tests it breaks after hickory. Bows Ive made of white oak took large sets without much excuse. On the other hand, I havent been able to break a bow made from this wood. One was steamed into 6 of reflex. When tillered it took 7 of set, standing at one inch of string follow at 55lb, and equaled the cast of any equal-follow bow. Of several whiteoak bows, from several different trees, the one that stayed straightest was fine-ringed, high-percentage early growth. Quite strange. One correspondent reported less set in his white oak bows, others report similar set. White oak is extremely strong in tension. Swamp white, Oregon white .72; Live .82. Semi-ring-porous.

Our heaviest oak, and the only non-ring-porous oak. OSAGE At about .82, osage is the heaviest common native North American wood, except occasionally for live oak. It seems that light yellow osage is less dense, weaker, takes more set, and is more brittle. For equal safety less-dense osage should be a little wider or a little longer than denser, darker osage. Staves having a low percentage of early wood are also heavier and stronger. Osage is easily heat or steam bent. Everything else being equal, osage will make the narrowest bow of all common US woods. For osage to equal the cast and low handshock of lighter woods outer limbs and tips must be proportionately narrower. [[[osage disadvantage,,, brittle if low mc PADAUK .67. Diffuse-porous. Tropical. Tested samples were somewhat brittle in tension, but this may not be typical. PALM Black palm is the most commonly used. Palm is not wood in the normal sense. Related to grass and bamboo, it doesnt grow by adding a new ring each year, gradually increasing in diameter. Instead it exudes out of the ground like bamboo, or animal horn.

And somewhat like bamboo it is denser at its surface, gradually becoming less dense moving toward its pithy center. As with bamboo, set can be reduced by using its outer surface as belly. Ive seen bows from Amozonia reversed in this manner. If a stave came from a large diameter tree the density difference within the first inch likely wouldnt justify reversal. But small diameter trees of this very hard wood are easier to work with primitive tools. Long, narrow, bows are therefor easier to make than shorter, wider bow, and this is the most common primitive design. Generally found in areas of high humidity these bows are also unusually long in order to prevent set. Once dry, palm will serve for any design. I have a 50lb black palm bow, which even at 75 is only 1 wide and thick at midlimb. Very stiff wood. This bow was made and used by the Bari people of the South American rainforest. It took many monkeys from many trees for many years in extremely high humidity. In our drier climate the bow gained considerable weight so was retillered. It still has only of follow. The bow is more than a foot taller than its maker.

The wood is dark and dense and heavy, about .90-plus by the feel of it, so heavy its outer limbs must be unusually narrow to avoid handshock. Hardwood yards sometimes stock palm, but seldom surface wood, so density/strength/elasticity will vary per its place in the tree. Adjust limb width per density. PEAR .73. PECANS: nutmeg .60; water .62; bitternut, pecan .66. All in the hickory family. Pecan and hickory are often sold under the same label in yards. PERSIMMON .74. Interlocking grain. Semi-ring-porous. Very attractive with an off-white sapwood back and dark belly. Tested samples and bows took slightly more set per mass, but strength in tension allowed corrective reflexing PLUM About .70. A desirable bow wood, both for its beauty and toughness. But its one of the most difficult to dry without cracking and checking. After felling, if you dont intend making a bow immediately, leave the bark on and seal the ends with two or three coats of paint or glue, or a paraffin dip.

A day or two might be needed for the ends to dry enough to hold paint, but dont wait too long . If making a bow straight off, remove its bark the first day or so while it will pull off freely (possible during the growing season only). A dull table knife helps. Otherwise bark must be worked off with sharp tools. This is more work and often leaves a marred back. You might want to leave the bark on smaller diameter branches and saplings. It makes a beautiful back. Plum bark will crack when drawn unless the more brittle outer layers are sanded down, leaving the more supple but still dark plum-colored young bark. This is especially needed on older branches. When the finished bow is oiled this young bark turns a rich, near-black plum. 30lb bows can be made from branches as small as 5/8; 40lb from ; 50lb from 1, and on up. If you leave the bark on the entire branch drying can take a couple of years. Better to floor tiller the bow, keeping it full width for full length to avoid lateral warping. Coat exposed wood with carpenters glue and it will be dry in a couple of months.

If you take the bark off of the back and floor tiller the branch, keeping it full width for full length, the wood will be so thin it likely wont check or crack (unless in very low humidity air) and will be dry in ten days or so. Narrow branches make long, narrow bows. Wider branches can make shorter, wider bows. Again, when drying wood, the most valuable item you can own is a humidity meter. Know the humidity and you know finished moisture content. 45% to %55 is a good target humidity, yielding about 9%MC. PURPLEHEART .82. Diffuse-porous. Tropical. Usually from heartwood board staves. Purpleheart has the compression elasticity of perhaps .70 wood, fretting more easily than other woods. Pretend youre making a bow of hophornbeam to be safe. Or, even more carefully than with other woods, execute thickness taper so that no portion or the limb is overstrainedno local or general dips or rises. If once past mid-limb you taper in a straight line to narrow nocks outer limbs will be light enough to pay for slightly wider mid limbs.

Handshock can be a problem with such heavy woods; narrow outer limbs and tips help here also. A couple of my early purplehearts blew due to small hard-to-see back knots. A thin hickory backing looks good on this dark wood (rawhide too). A hickory backing can be applied in Perry fashion, protecting the belly as well as the back. RAMIN .59. Diffuse-porous. Often found in the form or dowels and tool handles. ROWAN Quicken Mountain ash A small tree native to the north and west of Britain, is mentioned in a beautiful little book, British Woodland Trees, written in the 1940s by H. I. Edlin. Its said that the wood is reddish brown and tough and that the fruit makes an edible jelly. Used by the British in past centuries. Several current European bowmakers have reported good result with European rowan--Sorbus aucuparia, about .60 specific gravity. And Orgeon bowmakers have use the American version, Sorbus americana. SERVICEBERRY About .70. SNAKEWOOD 1.0-plus. Very dense tropical wood.

Thought highly of in the past, it was once harvested in southern Florida and still may possibly grow there. SCOTCH BROOM is a yellow-flowering little bush that grows along the roadways of California, watered by runoff from the crowned streets. Its like countless other such plants, in that at first glance it seems more like a useless weed than the makings for an first-class bow. There are surely scores of such unsung shrubs waiting to sling arrows as well as the known woods if just given a chance. Scotch Broom is a great little bow wood. Dense and tough. If any size at all it tends to be twisted and gnarly. This wood tends to check easily when drying, so treat it like plum. Use trunks as narrow as 1 in diameter. Two such trunks spliced together at the grip will yield a 66 or so bow. The high crown will be safe, the resulting low mass only improving cast. The narrower the limb the longer the bow should be. But sub 48, even 36, self staves make evil little Indian bows, the shorter ones limited to 40lb with drawlengths just under half of bow length.

50lb-plus, and stronger draws, can be gotten from mid-50 and longer bows. SUGARBERRY .51. SWEETGUM .52. Diffuse-porous. Good bows have been reported. TANOAK .65, semi-ring-porous. TEAK .57. Oily, extremely rot resistant. Tested samples and bows were slightly brash. TROPICAL WOODS Space only allows a few here. There are scores available. Any over .50SG will serve. TULIPWOOD .86. Tropical. WALNUT: black .55. Semi-ring-porous, easy to work, elastic for its mass, similar in performance to cherry, but more tension-safe. Will try to chrysal where cherry wont. A wonderful, overlooked bowwood. Bows can be all sapwood or all heartwood, or mixed, sapwood taking a bit more set in compression. The off-white sapwood can be worked down to 25% or so of limb thickness, creating appealing contrast with the almost black belly. Very high heartwood extractive level, so as with similar woods, it may be more resistant to water absorption.

Its reported not to warp with rising and falling humidity, possibly for this reason. WALNUT, European .56. Design as per Black. Not as pretty, but makes a nice bow. Strong enough in tension to tolerate being a backward bow: the crowned sapling surface as belly, the split back surface tillered. WENGE. About .67, determined by comparing same-size samples to known SG woods. African hardwood. Common in hardwood yards. Oils to a rich near-black. Looks impressive with a white hickory or rawhide back. When worked, wenge dusts up badly on its back, causing backs to pop off unless cleaned unusually well before gluing. The wood seems somewhat oily. Of possibly 100 boards observed, all were fairly thin ringed, but with even thinner earlywood. Wenge is more brittle in tension than same SG pecan. It wont allow the same degree of back fiber violation or as much overbending before breaking. A Uniform Bend Test sample took of set when bent 3.5 at 24.5lb An average of three osage tests yielded 3.5 at 34lb.

So, at equal thickness Osage and wenge were equally elastic, but wenge would have to be about 30% wider to have equal drawweight at equal set. This is based on just one wenge test, but comports with wenge bows Ive made. WITCH HAZEL .60. YEW, pacific Taxus brevifolia .63. Sapwood is strong and elastic in tension but takes enormous set in compression. Heartwood is elastic in both tension and compression. The back of a heartwood-only yew bow is safe and efficient. Sapwood/heartwood will bend a little farther before breaking, but would have to be far overstrained for this margin to come into play. Knowing this allow the use of inner splits of yew as selfbow staves. Low level yew, on average, grows faster than at high levels. Fast-growing, thick-ringed conifers yield lighter, weaker, less elastic wood. The opposite is true of hardwoods (diffuse-porous hardwoods may be as strong whether thin or thick-ringed). Unlike hardwoods, the percentage of late growth is usually higher in slow growing conifers.

A crowned belly will increase safety in an overstrained design, as per the 100-plus-pound old English warbows. A crowned back will help performance, having lower limb mass. But for safety youll have to stay true to a back ring, or close to it. Due to its low bend resistance and high elasticity, yew can be narrow and thicker than any other wood, save possibly juniper. Only yew will make a same dimension and weight old English warbow. Horn nocks are not just for show. Yew is soft, and bowstrings can eat into the nocks on especially heavy bows with narrow strings. From one point of view, the more hoary and wild a yew stave the better. Yew bows full of pins and even untouched twigs, a few yew leaves waving in the breeze such bows look ancient and full of mystery. Surely the Druids made them this way. YEW, European Taxus baccata .66 on average, thin-ringed being considerably more dense than thick-ringed. ZEBRAWOOD About .68.

Hurstwic: Viking Bow and Arrow Viking Age Arms and Armor Viking Bow and Arrow Bows were used primarily for hunting, but they were also used in battle in situations where men desired to target their opponents from a long distance away. In mass battles, archers opened the action before the opposing sides closed to fight at close range. Perhaps the most notable use of a bow in the sagas is Gunnar's single-handed defense at his home, Hlï¿½ï¿½arendi (right), against an attack led by Gizurr hvï¿½ti, told in chapter 77 of Brennu-Njï¿½ls saga. From a loft in the upper level of the house, Gunnar used his bow to kill or wound ten of his opponents before his bow string was cut by one of the attackers. In the battle on the ice at Vigrafjï¿½rï¿½ur described in chapter 45 of Eyrbyggja saga, the sons of ï¿½orbrandr took a defensive position on a rock above the ice, where they had good footing. Steinï¿½ï¿½r and his men had a hard time on the ice against such a strong defense.

Two Norwegians with Steinï¿½ï¿½r ran a short distance across the ice to where they could fire arrows at those on the rocks, making things very dangerous for ï¿½orbrand's sons. The fjord is shown as it looks today in the photograph to the left. The saga says that Snorri goï¿½i's shepherd watched the battle from the rock cliff at the extreme left edge of the photo, then ran back to Helgafell to get help. Bows were used in nautical battles. Once engaged, men on opposing ships fired arrows and threw missiles from one ship to the other, attempting to clear the decks of men so that the ship could be taken. Chapters 106-111 of ï¿½lafs saga Tryggvasonar describes the sea battle at Svï¿½lï¿½r in the year 1000, in which King ï¿½lafr was killed. King ï¿½lafr was on board his ship, ï¿½rmurinn langi (The Long Serpent), shown to the right in a 19th century painting by Sinding.

The saga says the king shot most often with his bow, but sometimes threw spears. With him was Einar, described as the best shot anywhere. Einar fired two close shots at Earl Eirï¿½kr, before Eirï¿½ks bowman, Finn, fired an arrow that hit Einar's bow. With the next shot, Einar's bow broke. King Olaf asked, "What cracked with such a loud noise?" Einar replied, "Norway out of your hands, sire." As with other weapons, bows were used to threaten. Before the battle at Svï¿½lï¿½r, ï¿½lfr, one of King ï¿½laf's men on board ï¿½rmurinn langi, questioned the king's command, implying cowardice on the part of the king. ï¿½lafr fitted an arrow to the bow in his hand and aimed it at ï¿½lfr, who said, "Shoot in another direction, king, where the need is greater." A reproduction bow is shown to the left. Bows were made from the wood of a yew, ash, or elm.

Typically, they were 1.6 to 2m (60 to 80 in) long. A complete bow found at Hedeby was made of yew and was 192cm long. Arrow heads were made in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some historic arrowheads from the 10th century found in Norway are shown in the sketch to the left. The shortest is 12cm (5in) long. Arrowheads are not commonly found in the graves of warriors, suggesting that bows were not thought of as tools for warriors. Most arrowheads are found at house sites, which might suggest that bows were thought of doemstic tools, used for hunting. The forked arrowhead shown to the right was found at a house site in Reykjavï¿½k in Iceland. Arrowheads in good condition were found at several Icelandic house sites dating from the Viking age, and they range in length from 10-15cm (4-6in). Arrowheads had a tang which was driven into a hole in the shaft and secured with cordage and pitch. The tang is clearly visible in the photo to the right.

Although evidence is very slight, shafts were probably 70 to 80cm (28-32in) long, and perhaps 10mm (3/8in) in diameter. Shafts were probably made out of hardwood, in order to hold the tang. The estimated draw weight of one 10th century bow is 90lbs (40kgf), and the effective range of this weapon was about 200m (650ft). However, medieval Icelandic law gives a different estimate. The distance of the flight of an arrow, ï¿½rdrag (bowshot) was a unit of measure commonly used in Icelandic law. For example, Grï¿½gï¿½s, the medieval Icelandic law book, requires that the court empowered to confiscate an outlaw's property be held within a bowshot of the outlaw's home (K 62). A later addition to Grï¿½gï¿½s defines the bowshot to be two hundred faï¿½mar (about 480m). It seems likely that archers used bows with draw weights to fit their capabilities, so there must have been some variation in the draw weights of bows.

After Einar's bow was broken at the battle at Svï¿½lï¿½r, the king threw him his own bow, telling Einar to continue to shoot. Einar fitted an arrow, and unaccustomed to the king's light bow, drew the head behind the bow. "Too weak, too weak is the king's bow." He threw the bow aside and took up his sword and shield. Available evidence suggests that only longbows were used in Viking lands. However, some intriguing but speculative evidence suggests that composite recurve bows similar to those used in eastern Europe and Asia may have been used in Viking lands. A sketch of an eastern recurve bow is shown to the left, and a photo of a historical eastern recurve bow to the right. Typically, this type of bow was made from multiple materials, such as wood, sinew, and horn or bone. A recurve bow is shaped such that the tips bend away from the archer when unstrung, as is the case in the photo to the right. Both the bows to the right and the left are shown in the same orientation; when strung, the tips of the bow on the right would bend back to the left, as shown in the sketch.

Bows made in this manner store more energy for a given bow length. Thus a short recurve bow has a range nearly as great as that of a longbow, offering advantages to archers in situations where the longer bow would be troublesome, such as in dense forests or on horseback. Some historical recurve bows are asymmetric, with the upper limb longer than the lower, as shown in the sketch, making them better suited for use on horseback. The Icelanders referred to these bows as hï¿½nbogi (Hunnish bows), although the only reference to them in the Icelandic saga literature appears to be as personal names (such as Hï¿½nbogi inn sterki in Laxdï¿½la saga, and Hï¿½nbogi ï¿½orgilsson, the father of a 12th century lawspeaker). The term does not appear in any of the Sagas of Icelanders referring to a bow of any kind.

Konungs skuggsjï¿½ (The King's Mirror), a 13th century Norwegian training text, refers to a hornbogi (horn bow) as being a useful weapon for a mounted warrior, since it is easy to draw while on horseback (chapter 38). The hornbogi may refer to a recurve hï¿½nbogi, made partially of horn. The trail of evidence that suggests the use of recurve bows begins in Brennu-Njï¿½ls saga, chapter 63. Gunnar and his brothers Kolskeggr and Hjï¿½rtr were ambushed by Starkaï¿½r and a much larger band of men. The brothers were able to kill fourteen of the ambushers, while on their side, only Hjï¿½rtr was killed. The battle took place on the shore of the Eystri-Rangï¿½ river, near the large stone known as Gunnarssteinn, shown in the foreground of the photo to the right. In the 19th century, erosion brought to light several graves above the river, a short distance from Gunnarssteinn.

In the photograph, the grave sites are on the right in the photo, on the other side of the road across from the stone. One of graves contained a decorated ring made of bone. The ring is fairly large: about 3.8cm (1.5in) in diameter. It seems too big to be a finger ring, but too small to be a bracelet. A photo is shown to the left. Interestingly, the ring was decorated with images of harts (stags). The name Hjï¿½rtr means hart. Did the ring belong to Hjï¿½rtr? Is it Hjï¿½rtr who was buried in this grave immediately adjacent to the battle site? The evidence is not convincing, but it is an intriguing coincidence. Archaeologists have speculated further on this find, suggesting that the ring is a thumb ring of the type used by eastern European bowmen to protect their thumbs while using a bow. The draw weight of the eastern recurve bows can be substantially over 100 pounds (45kgf). These bows are drawn with string hooked in the thumb, the strongest digit. The string rests on the ring, which protects the thumb.

The use of these kind of rings is well documented in eastern Europe and Asian lands. Combining all these speculative elements together, it has been suggested that the thumb ring indicates that Hjï¿½rtr used an eastern style recurve bow, making it likely that his brother Gunnar, Iceland's most celebrated bowman, may have used one as well. If so, then recurve bows may have been known and used in Norse lands in the Viking era It's certainly plausible that Icelanders and other Norse people came in contact with this kind of bow on trading voyages to eastern Europe and Asia, or in service with the Varangians in Constantinople during the Viking age. Portions of a composite bow have been found at the Viking trading town of Birka in Sweden. Some evidence contradicts this conclusion. The saga says that Hjï¿½rtr was carried home by Gunnar on his shield and buried there, rather than at the battle site. If home means Gunnar's home at Hlï¿½ï¿½arendi (left), it is a considerable distance from the battle site where the ring and skeletal remains were found.

Additionally, surviving eastern thumb rings have a different shape than the bone ring found at Gunnarssteinn, with characteristic features missing from this ring, although at least one modern archer has expressed the opinion that the artifact would serve as an archer's thumb ring. I find the evidence too scanty to support the conclusion that eastern recurve bows were used by Vikings, but perhaps more supporting evidence will come to light in the future. << Previous article

Question: The best longbows were constructed from which wood?
Answer: Yew